The Steel Guitar Forum

Messy, unorganized, electronic nightmares, and boobie traps everywhere. This thread is not for the neat guys that have everything in order and can find something without a problem.

I'm talking about fellows like me that are working on projects, have tons of wires but can't find the right one but it's under your nose. Picks are constantly missing, always adding 10 unit power strips and still looking for a plug.

This is my mess and I take total responsibility for it:

And you thought you had a mess !!

Len, you've got a lot more stuff than you had about a dozen years ago when I visited you!

...I'd say it's about par for the course...

Jim:

I concede to you as having a bigger mess than I. Doug, I only took pictures of the photogenic part of my studio. I made paths through this mess and for some reason I do pretty well navigating through it. I do need to straighten things out.

Len

Akshully - that's not my mess but as it is similar to my work one only larger in scale - I just couldn't resist posting it. Labeling wires has not yet been discovered or applied to IT setups it seems - far too analogue I guess.
I particularly like your "Shure large area 'spittle deflector' and stand" in front of your desk mike. Priceless!

Clearly your problem is too much stuff. Send some of that my way, and I can help you get that terrible mess looking all neat. Seriously though, that looks like amp heaven.

Nice looking shop vac.

Is that a suck/blow model, or all suck?

Lots of people swear by those old suck/blow models, particularly the black ones.

I have a 16x14 foot house out behind my residence, with a path to my chair. The place is covered with amps, drums, steel, guitars, shelves, tools, mini fridge, cases, work bench, recorders, CD players, old MacIntosh end table speakers, wires, and I'm always finding something that's been missing for awhile. I also have a 20x30 foot shop, where I keep my flight cases, with all of my heavy tools, my Jeep Wrangler, and a small Ford Van. It's all a mess, but I spend most of my time in these two places, especially now that I'm retired. My wife can't stand clutter, so she never comes down to check on me, she lets me know suppers ready, by the intercom. You Can't Beat That.

I'm being encouraged to build a 40'x20' addition to the house for my music room....problem is, I'd rather spend the coin on new gear!

Len - that's a Beautiful mess you got....! I got a much smaller mess, but still very nice.

I do think the main goal is to make your music studio look as impressive as the inside of the local Guitar Center...and then try and get a franchise...

BTW - that half empty rack would clean up nice if it was full of new stuff....!

That tooled leather armpad on the mullen is awesome!

no..nothing like that . I thought my space was a mess 'till I saw yours ! Mine is more of " I didn't clean the work space" after the last session...
The stuff to the right is more of the catch all area, connectors, phone, "stuff" , coffee, blah blah blah, the stuff to the left is the important stuff, the meat...What really helped my situation in a small space was building the keyboard shelf. The keyboard slides underneath and I have a work space in front or on top of it . Dang keyboards. I also built TWO custom sized racks for outboard gear out of MDF which makes life much neater and organized, at least for me.

Thanks for all the wonderful responses. This is not BS, I was looking for a volume pedal somewhere in this studio for 20 years and it was stuck behind a desk drawer.

Lee: The shop vac was there for a reason and everyone will find out in a week or so when the movie is edited and posted. Stay tuned for this one as I think this movie is my finest hour. A very expensive finest hour but worth every penny.

Recording something, a couple years ago. I've since made some upgrades.

I think my problem is, I want every guitar and amp from my childhood that I would drool over in the music store and then I got into pedal steel and lapsteel with all the gear that goes along with it. Before you know it you end up piling one amp on another, etc.

With that said, my steel & guitar friends drop by and the conversations and jamming is priceless. They bust my chops and we all laugh. A nice time and worth
getting ribbed....

I think it's pretty common place, it just finds different expressions based on what people value. Some people buy the cars they couldn't afford to buy but wanted when they were young, etc. Some buy recreational vehicles, boats, motorhomes, some lake cottages...it's all so boring compared to amps and guitars. One of my good friend's bought the house he wanted to own since he walked into it 40 years ago.

It looks about like our studio, Len.So many wires every where. I think that's about normal.

Lee:

You asked about my shop vac? That was to suck up the dust from my Rickenbacker modification.

What is the aqua blue steel? Looks like a steel built on a flat piece of metal or is that some kind of optical illusion?